TOPICS OF THE DAY.
GERMANY AND THE UNITED STATES.
PRE text of President Wilson's Note to Germany on X the sinking of the Lusitania' has not been published at the time when we write, but there is no doubt that the unofficial summaries convey ite sense accu- rately enough. It asks that some assurance shall be given that in future unarmed merchantmen carrying non- combatants shall be searched by the German Navy, and that the passengers and crew shall be transferred to a place of safety, before the prise is destroyed. It will be noticed that Mr. Wilson does not make this demand merely on behalf of American ships. He makes it on behalf of neutral passengers who travel in any ship. In other words, he quite rightly bases his argument on the legal right, always recognized hitherto, of any neutral passenger to travel in safety in an unarmed ship, belligerent or otherwise. Of course the unarmed ship may be carrying contraband, and, if so, the passengers must expect to see the ship seized and to find themselves carried off to some place other than their original destina- tion. They lay themselves out for the possibility of such treatment when they take passage in the ship, but their lives must in all cases be secure. Such is international law on the subject. Mr. Wilson merely asks that international law shall be respected. After his earlier declaration that Germany would be held to "strict accountability ". for the loss of American lives, Mr. Wilson could not have done less than send such a, Note. If he had acted literally on his words he would have done much more. He is in the position of a schoolmaster who has said to a boy : "If you break a window I shall certainly punish you. Remember that." The boy then breaks a window, and the master says: "If you break another window I shall certainly punish you." The ordinary onlooker would be surprised that punishment had not instantly followed the deed. A like surprise may be roused in onlookers at the policy of Mr. Wilson. We ought to add, however, that Mr. Wilson's second warning is more emphatic than his first. In the first he did not expressly speak of the possible loss of American lives in a vessel belonging to a belligerent. He did specifically mention American vessels. Ile said nothing, on the other band, which implied that he would overlook a loss of American lives in any unarmed ship, belligerent or other- wise. He now emphasizes the fact that he meant, and still means, to uphold the rights of neutrals to travel unharmed in any unarmed vessel.
Of course Mr. Wilson labours under numerous diffi- culties. He desires earnestly to remain at peace. But the onlooker may be none the less astonished that he should ever use language which makes the subsequent process of remaining at peace seem like unwillingness to act on his words. Why say anything firm if he does not mean to prove that he is firm ? We are examining his policy for the moment only at its superficial value— as it may appear to one who analyses it literally and on grounds of pure logic. But what we know of Mr. Wilson's temperament, of his previous policy, and of the nature of his Cabinet goes, as a matter of fact, a long way to diminish our surprise. When he tackled the problem of Mexico he spoke in the high and admirable tone of a Puritan who could not tolerate the presence of wrong. He succeeded in removing a " bloodstained " President, it is true, but his unwillingness to use force on any consider- able scale brought it about that the place of the blood- stained President was taken by a number of rivals all of whom are more bloodstained than the man for whose office they fight. We are sure that Mr. Wilson is not at heart a pacificist np to the point at which the logic of all foreign policy is necessarily destroyed; but we believe that Mr. Bryan is such a pacificist. And Mr. Bryan, who is not only Mr. Wilson's Secretary of State, but bolds in the hollow of his hand an enormous vote in the West, is indispensable to the existence of the Government. That is one of Mr. Wilson's difficulties which should never be forgotten. His countrymen know his difficulties, and it is plain that they trust him.
The questions that concern us now to the exclusion of all others are: What will the German answer be to Mr.
Wilson ? and To what action by the United States will Mr. Wilson's Note lead ? We take it for granted that Germany will not consent to abandon her submarine campaign against "unarmed merchant vessels carrying non-combatants," for that would mean an entire reversal of her criminal policy at sea. She attaches enormous importance to that policy, and hopes by means of it ultimately to neutralize the existence of our Fleet. Besides, she has dipped her hands too deep in illegality to draw them out now. She can hope to succeed only by further and worse crimes. Opposed to that fact we have the other fact that Mr. Wilson undoubtedly means to keep out of the war if he possibly can. Let us say here emphatically that the British people have not the slightest wish that the United States should enter the war. We hope, on the contrary, that Mr. Wilson will be able to stand apart. There are various reasons why the neutrality of the United States in the war is as helpful to us as her participation would be.
Our discussion of the problem, then, brings us to the following questions : What steps can Mr. Wilson take to call Germany to order and to protect his own people without actually making war ? And if Mr. Wilson does any of these things will Germany allow him to remain at peace ? It has been suggested that the United States should express her reprobation of the deeds of Germany by breaking off diplo- matic relations. This does not of course necessarily mean war. After the dynastic murders in Serbia Britain had no diplomatic intercourse with Serbia for about three years. Or the United States, while allowing the staff of the German Embassy to remain in America, might rid herself of the extremely embarrassing and disturbing attentions of Herr Orenburg, that eminent missionary of mischief. She would show her indignation by an unmistakable snub. Again, the United States might declare a commercial boycott against Germany. Sho might refuse either to receive the much-reduced amount of German exports that reaches her, or to send American goods of any kind through neutral ports to Germany. Or she might announce that in future she will help to ensure the safety of the seas by letting American ships of war escort merchantmen through the so-called war zone. Yet again, she might penalize Germany by seizing the valuable German merchantmen which are interned in American harbour.. She might perhaps seize them one by one in response to German outrages as they occurred.
Mr. Wilson is above all things a man of conscience, and if war should be forced upon him after he had done every- thing that seemed to him reasonable to avoid it, he would no doubt feel that he must accept the necessity—again as a matter of conscience. For though American participation in the war might be slight, he would feel that the victimization of his country to that extent was necessary for the sake of international morality. We recognize that Germany could do little or nothing to injure America, but the Germans argue on desperate and reckless lines. They may speculate on some internal crisis arising in America through a declaration of war, or they may calculate on America being more useful to the Triple Entente as a neutral than as an ally. We used the phrase "slight participation" in the war deliberately, because Mr. Wilson has already given us an example—when he sent ships and troops to Vera Cruz— of his idea that war may be not really war but a fraction of war. On the other hand, if public passion in America forced the Government to enter the war in earnest and not as a Power with limited liability, there is no doubt what America could accomplish with her enormous resources. It is true she would have to create an army. At present her Regular Army amounts only to some eighty thousand men. The National Guard or Militia is not by any means a well-trained or well-organized force. But we remember the genius for military creation which America possesses. No one who has read of the splendid achieve- ments in the making of armies in the Civil War can doubt that what the Americans, North and South, did then they could repeat, and could much more than repeat with their hugely increased numbers. All this, however, is a dim speculation. It presupposes a prolonged war into which America could not seriously enter for many months. If the United States by any act of war eventually ranges herself with the Allies, what shall we be able to say except that in the midst of our regrets we shall feel that
she could not have done otherwise—that a noble country at last fights for a noble cause because events did not allow her to serve civilization in any other way ? In that case Mr. Wilson would no doubt feel that the sacrifice was worth while, and the only thing be would have to deplore would be that he did not recognize tho depths of German infamy sooner—that he waited till a necessary protest against the loss of American lives brought war to his doors instead of protesting on general grounds months before against the German attempts to make the civilization of centuries null and void.
Another matter deserves mention. If the United State.' enters into some relation of hostility towards Germany, we can no longer look for the services which the United States has rendered to the belligerents by her generous and unceasing labours on behalf of prisoners in Germany and by her care for the destitute Belgians in their own country. We fear that wo must make up our minds for a change in this respect. We must look for a substitute—perhaps Switzerland. It cannot be helped. To the greater causes the lesser—even though these be also great—must yield. We shall never forget the debt we owe to Mr. Wilson's Government for what they have done. Their labours have been the bright flower of the period of "strict neutrality," now, as it seems to us, definitely ended.
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